The man, aged in his 40s, was alone with his dog surf-casting off a gravel beach at Haumoana, in Hawke's Bay, on Sunday evening when he fell and was somehow paralysed.
Local off-duty police officer Ryan Kemsley was at his home in Haumoana when his neighbour came and banged on his door shortly after 7.30pm to tell him them she had seen a body in the surf.